The Western World

"The world, friend Govinda, is not perfect or on a slow journey toward perfection; no, it is perfect every moment; all sin already bears its forgiveness within itself; every little boy already bears the old man within himself, every infant bears death, every dying man bears eternal life. No one is able to look at someone else and know how far along on his journey he is; in the highwayman and dice player lurks a Buddha, in the Brahman lurks the highwayman." p. 77 Siddhartha

The passage above reflects one of the core axioms of the allegory(the story). Sometimes what makes this passage and the book difficult for westerners to understand is the philosophy behind it. What can you surmize about this philosophy and how is that philosophy distinct from our western mentality?

Blog due on Thursday.